IGDA

So I’m walking out to my car wearing the nicest casual shirt that I own while also rocking the hipster flippy floppies and socks (the kinds with the grey toe even) since my shoes were planning to rendezvous with me at the auto. I’m well onto my way to my first IGDA meeting. Previously I had been a member – I even have a card with my name and everything. I had joined thinking that I could meet new people that have jobs. I think I had mentioned in a previous post that something crazy like 80% of game jobs are not listed anywhere, so I was off into the wilds to see what I could see. Of course I had to drive across the county to see said, um, “see.” Which is what I was doing once I had met up with the previously mentioned footwear.Once they were again lovingly and securely wrapped around my feets, I was on my way at speed. This was ironically my first IGDA get together. When I was a member before I kept waiting for a meeting to come up, so I could meet new people and stuff like that. Well, an entire year passed before anything was even mentioned, and I let the membership, to the cool club that never met, lapse. Which is why this card carrying member of the International Game Developers Association, has a card that says both student, and 2009. I mean, when the whole point (in my eyes at least) is to be introduced to people that may know people that I too may like to know, and then you never get to meet anybody, there really isn’t a point.Either way, when I did finally arrive, it was a modest meeting. The San Diego Chapter of the IGDA was, for all intents and purposes, dead. I mean, flatlined like a Hacker that failed trying to crack black ICE. It started as a smallish group and then slowly grew into a moderately small group. The turnout was interesting.Mostly, because as a self described “Indie Game Designer” I seemed to be the people that people wanted to meet. Odd considering. Lots of artists, background artists, modelers, people that refer to The Art Institute as “AI” (which is confusing to programmer types) were in attendance. Most of them knowing each other from their normal jobs that didn’t have much to do with game development. It’s a feeling that I can appreciate on a basic level. Lots of other types too, which seemed to do something tangentally related to gaming, but not. Several programmers in attendance, just happy to code whatever for a living, and not really wanting to throw themselves into the boiling pot that Game Programming is.I did get to meet some people that I am now Facebook friends with, which is nice. Another, when asking about what I’m working on (which by the way, is the cool question to ask – “So, what kind of projects are you working on?” It’s like at college, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”) told me about a friend that does all kinds of 3D work and is looking to do stuff for their portfolio. Quality character driven stuff. Emails were exchanged, and I think that it may lead to good things. If nothing else, they know other people that work in small groups. Things may get around to happening, or maybe not. Either way, it’s nice to be able to find out.

In development news, ahh, right. I know, I shouldn’t, I promised, but all I really did was change the name of two files and play. That’s it. I swear. I don’t count that as really developing anything. No lines of code where typed. It doesn’t count.Anyhow, the Cliff music works. The Composer really came through on that one. He created 2 different versions of the same music – a somber, and a hectic Cliff Theme. Separate, they’re pretty good, but when they are put together, it just works on such a fundamental level. It’s really very pro. I haven’t scripted the music cues yet, but just with my keyboard shortcuts, they’re seamless. It’s so nice to know that the level that gave me so much trouble is really coming around to being one of the best.